Bortoleto clinches F3 title as rivals fail to win bonus points for pole

Gabriel Bortoleto has clinched the 2023 Formula 3 championship title after his closest rivals failed to secure the two bonus points they needed in qualifying to keep the title battle alive.

The Trident driver headed into the final round of the championship at Monza with a 38 point lead in the standings over Paul Aron and 39 over Josep Maria Marti.

With a maximum of 37 points available across both the sprint and feature races, both Aron and Marti needed to secure the two bonus points available for pole position in Friday’s qualifying session to have any chance of keeping the title fight alive. However, qualifying was abandoned with 10 minutes of running time remaining under red flag conditions after a crash for Oliver Goethe, who was on provisional pole position at the time of the accident.

With the session ending early, and Aron the highest-placed of Bortoleto’s rivals in third, no driver can overtake the points leader over the rest of the season-closing race weekend. Bortoleto is therefore guaranteed the title regardless of how the two races pan out.

The 18-year-old has secured his first single-seater championship with the F3 title in his rookie season in the series. Bortoleto has taken two race victories so far this season – in the Bahrain and Melbourne feature races – with three other podium appearances as well as a single pole position at Albert Park.

The Trident driver will start from fifth on the grid for Sunday’s feature race with the title already his. Aron will start third, with Marti well down the order in 16th.

Since the series was rebranded as FIA Formula 3 for the 2019 season, each F3 champion has graduated into Formula 2 for the subsequent season. Robert Shwartzman, Oscar Piastri, Dennis Hauger and Victor Martins each made the step up in the season after winning the F3 title.

Bortoleto is the first Trident driver to win the series championship, as well as the first driver from South America. Trident are currently sitting in second place in the teams’ championship standings behind leaders Prema.

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